


Alpha

by Daecus



Series: New Age [1]
Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: Gen, New Age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-14
Updated: 2013-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-09 06:46:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1972911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daecus/pseuds/Daecus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This starts at the beginning of the third season of Transformers Prime, so warning for some spoilers. Sorry if I messed up the computer language. Anyways, this is basically when my OC, Jetstream lands on Earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alpha

        Jetstream monitored his ship's status carefully, occasionally pausing to type in commands in order to maneuver around this asteroid or cool down that shock absorber. Approximately fifty-two light cycles had passed since his last encounter with any other Cybertronians. He had been mainly collecting energon to fuel his starship and metals to patch it up. He really did not feel like interacting with any more of his kind, Decepticons and Autobots alike. True, he did often traverse planets where other Cybertronians were either residing or making battle with one another, but it was only to clandestinely thwart the reign of any Decepticons he could find, without being discovered, of course. He was lucky to have the stealth ship which he fixed up in what seemed like eons ago, just when the 'Bots and 'Cons were evacuating Cybertron because the war had rendered it inhospitable. He had been left behind to fend for himself.

        During the war, he had defected from the Decepticons and joined the Autobots because of the 'Cons' "toe-stepping ways," as he had reasoned to the Autobots in charge on the day he deserted. However, when the Autobots lost the war and were evacuating, none of them would take him onto their ship because he still wore a Decepticon emblem for infiltration purposes. Even his military overseer had turned a blind eye.

        Jetstream learned the hard lessons of survival from his time on the wasted hunk of scrap that once was his planet. He could at least thank those stuffy 'Bots for that, he mused bitterly during the cycles that he had worked on the downed stealth ship. She was not hurt badly; she just needed a few patches and she was good to go. He grew to like the ship and lovingly decided to name her the Spirit.

        One cycle, as the Spirit lazily drifted amongst the stars, Jetstream mustered the curiosity to search the Autobots' database to see what status they had listed him under.

        It was "Killed in Action."

        No one had bothered to even check. They just wanted him to be dead and be done with it. His reserve of cynicism had continually grown ever so much after he accidentally revealed his presence six stellar cycles ago near an Autobot base when the Spirit crash-landed due to an engine failure from the planet's unusually large gravitational pull. At the time, he lacked the resources to get the Spirit back up and running, so he had to turn to the most friendly—or least hostile—mechs he could find.

        He agreed to help them in their quest to eradicate the Decepticon influence in that star system in exchange for their resources. He would not trust them to fix the Spirit correctly and said that he could take care of things himself, which proved to be a sound decision, given that his repairs came through for him when the Autobots left him for scrap... again. They sold him out for "valuable new information," but the end was all the same, regardless of reason. He wound up in a rinky-dink holding cell in the 'Con base, which he easily escaped, given his extensive experience with containment tactics. He later blew up both the 'Con and 'Bot bases and flew off. Served them right.

        A pinging sound wrested him from his reminiscing. There was an energon-rich planet which also contained ore. He decided to investigate.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

     INCOMING SIGNAL: NEW SOURCES OF ENERGON DETECTED FROM "EARTH". LOCATION: SOL CLUSTER

>> SCAN FOR "CYBERTRONIANS"

     LOADING... DONE. "CYBERTRONIAN" LIFE FORMS DETECTED.

     WARNING: LARGE INFESTATION OF DECEPTICONS

     CAUTION: ADVANCED SPECIES OF CARBON-BASED LIFE FORMS DETECTED.

           LEVEL OF INTEGRATION: MINIMAL, DISGUISE REQUIRED

     NOTE: SMALL GROUP OF AUTOBOTS

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

        Jetstream frowned. Company always made it difficult for him to do his job, considering the large number of Decepticons, possible civilian casualties (even if they were organic), and the Autobots to help get in the way. Plus, he needed to obtain an alternate mode. Great. He sighed and tapped in a few more commands.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

>> SEARCH TOTAL "AUTOBOTS" AND "DECEPTICONS"

     SEARCHING... SEARCH COMPLETE.

     AUTOBOTS: 8

     DECEPTICONS: SCAN RESULTS INCONCLUSIVE, HIGH CONCENTRATION      OF ENERGON EMISSION

>> SCAN "EARTH" FOR [OPTIMAL LANDING POSITION]

     SCANNING... COORDINATES SET.

>> CLOAK [ALL]

> AUTO-PILOT TO COORDINATES

     PROCEEDING. INITIATING LANDING PROTOCOL...

     ANALYSIS: FTL DRIVE CORE STABLE, CLOAKING ACTIVE, HEAT EMISSIONS MINIMIZED, WEAPONS READY, POWER RUNNING ALL SYSTEMS

     ENTERING ATMOSPHERE.

     WARNING: EXTREME HEAT DETECTED.

>> DEPLOY SHIELDING

> DIVERT POWER FROM NON-CRITICAL SYSTEMS

> INITIATE EXTERIOR COOLING SYSTEM

     WORKING... DONE. ATMOSPHERIC ENTRANCE SUCCESSFUL.

     5% DAMAGE TO HULL. SHIELD CAPACITY AT 35%. CLOAKING STILL ENABLED. ALL OTHER SYSTEMS AT 100% CAPACITY.

     PREPARING TO LAND... LANDING SUCCESSFUL.

>> POWER DOWN ENGINE CORE

> MAINTAIN KEY TERMINAL FUNCTIONS

     SAID SYSTEMS SHUTTING DOWN.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

        As Jetstream turned to look at the surveillance screen, which served as a window, he saw that the Spirit had landed in a valley which lay inconspicuously amongst others in a verdant sea of hills topped with low-lying shrubbery. Regrettably, there were no trees, providing little cover to the exposed hull of his ship. Variegated avian creatures crowed and took flight after his ship had scared them away. He tapped in several commands to conserve power and switch to an alternate form of camouflage via reflective panels that encased the outer hull of the ship.

        _Which reminds me: I need to take a look at that 5% damage,_ he told himself. He punched a few codes in the airlock as the ship re-pressurized the interior with the exterior atmosphere. He felt a pleasant blast of cold air as he gazed at the surroundings. So far, there were no signs of energon.

        Jetstream made a high-pitched whistle. A tiny scarab-shaped beetle flew out of the shadows of the ship and landed on his outstretched palm. He had many more, but he just carried one around at all times for recording purposes. The Buggers, as he called them, were his creations. They were sentient, but loyal to him, as he showed fatherly affection for their services, whether it be eating the rust from the Spirit (which he could not see, due to his visuals being based on heat emissions and not on the light spectrum) or painfully eating the metal off of some unlucky spark plug whom he wanted information from. He marveled his ingenuity as he stroked the Bugger's wing covers while it looked around and self-repaired itself. He had made a complete sound code system so that only he could command the Buggers.

        He opened the hard glass casing on his chest for the Bugger to fly/hop into. Only at this time did he look at the Spirit. The reflection camouflage had worked fine. Just some of the panels looked hotter than usual, a sign that the power would give out on those first. He moved to the front of the ship, where most of the damage had occurred. While he repaired the panels, he wondered if his reflection showed.

        _Of course it does. It's a reflection panel, dummy._ Jetstream knocked the side of his head for his forgetful insolence. He could not help but wonder, though, what did he really look like in the light spectrum that most Cybertronians visualized with? He had been told that he was a medium-sized dark blue flyer with short white wings protruding from his upper back and longer, larger grey wings with blue details from the lower portion, an unusual attribute, given that most flyers had their larger wings on the upper part of their bodies. He knew they were there, but he could not just look at a mirror and see what shape and size they were. He had also been told that his feet looked weird and that there were weird antenna-like prongs that sprouted from his forehead by a youngster whose name he had long forgotten on Cybertron. Once in a while, he also felt the long and short flat, slim rods that extended from his audio sensors. These extra antennae helped to intercept any message traffic that was nearby, like the infamous Soundwave of the Decepticons he had heard stories about.

        He shook his head. Why was he day-dreaming about such things? It was such a frivolous thing, like trying to describe the visual phenomenon of color and light. He had to get to work on the usual sweep for Decepticon tactical weaknesses. He pulled out a scanner and scanned the area within a twenty-five mile radius. Though there were a few domiciles in the area, no advanced life forms could be detected. Content with the location, Jet headed back inside the Spirit to get a more extensive scan of the planet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        The Autobots' screen beeped urgently, signaling the detection of a new set of Predacon remains.

        "Hey, guys. New set of coordinates. One's in Brazil, and the other... is in Colorado," a young tech geek to whom everyone referred to as Raf noted as he linked the coordinates to the Autobots' ground bridge.

        "I want everyone split into teams. Arcee, go with Bumblebee. Bulkhead, Wheeljack, and, I will handle the other set of coordinates," the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime commanded with his signature mark of calm.

        "Where's the old rod in the mud?" Wheeljack asked, referring to Ultra Magnus, his previous commanding officer during the war over the Wreckers.

        "Ultra Magnus is off patrolling," Optimus replied, knowing all too well about the friction that went on between the two to know whom Wheeljack was talking about.

        Ratchet pulled up the ground bridge and gestured to the open portal.

        "Autobots, roll out!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Jet, too, had seen the anomalies on his screen, but he did not exactly know the situation, so he would be going in blind, not knowing what he was looking for. He hated the feeling.

        He whistled for a group of Buggers to come to his position. Obediently, the beetles flew and landed on his shoulders. He split them up and told them to investigate the separate coordinates. He linked the key terminal with the beetles' visual feeds and sent them on their ways.

        _Now, the waiting_ , Jet thought as he opened his space bridge for the tiny bugs to carry out their missions. He set the coordinates to an area a little ways off from the locations in order to avoid any unwanted guests coming through. As the bridge shut off, he turned back to his work, looking for any tactical errors in the Decepticons' paths, insurrections occurring within their ranks, possible energon mines he could hit... ah ha! He had found several outliers that were not too heavily guarded. Perfect. He set the space bridge to automatically activate at the prior coordinates when his drones were ready for pick-up, in case the Buggers pinged him while he was absent.

        He opened the space bridge and walked casually through.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Arcee and Bumblebee checked their apparatus to see if it was working correctly.

        "Ratchet, Raf, are you sure that these are the correct coordinates?" Arcee asked. They had yet to encounter any remains or Decepticons and were starting to get frustrated for running in circles in what seemed like an endless expanse of green foilage.

        {Maybe it's underground?} Bumblebee suggested with a few bleeps. It made sense.

        "But we can't find an entrance anywhere!" Arcee said exasperatedly.

        {Hey, look!} Bumblebee suddenly beeped as he pointed to something flying above their heads. Arcee raised her guns, but Bumblebee pushed them back down so they would not scare the thing. It turned out to be a beetle. As they looked closer, they could see that it was synthetic.

        "Why isn't it attacking?" Arcee asked, since she knew it was not theirs.

        {Just watch,} Bumblebee simply said. He followed the bug as it flew to a waterfall.

        "It's a dead end. What's the point of following it? C'mon, let's go!" Arcee started to leave, but Bumblebee pulled her back and pointed to the beetle once more. It flew to the top of the waterfall, where the momentum of the falling water had not gathered to match the force at the bottom, then it dived headlong into the waterfall.

        {Let's go through; I think there's a space behind it.} Arcee understood and nodded as she once again transformed her arms into weapons and stepped inside the waterfall. Her optics had to adjust to the darkness as she tiptoed through, Bumblebee in tow. She heard voices and instinctively sidled along the wall and peered around the corner. Bumblebee had been right. There were two Decepticons standing idly in the cave corridor, and where there were Decepticons, there was bound to be something important.

        "I'll take the one on the right," she said.

        {Left one is mine.} Bumblebee acknowledged.

        They took the two out with no problems, but the sounds of gunfire must have echoed through the cavernous hallways because they heard shouts further down.

        "We have to hurry, or they'll be out with the Predacon parts before we can get there." Bumblebee and Arcee assumed vehicle mode. The hidden cave was big enough for the both of them, but it was quite bumpy. They soon had Starscream and Vehicons in their sights.

        "Autobots! Stop them!" Starscream frantically screamed at the Vehicons, who obediently shot at their opponents, but to no avail. They were knocked to the ground as the Autobots used their momentum to gain the upper hand, transforming to their mech modes and pummeling the poor suckers to the ground. Both looked at Starscream.

        {Hand over the bone, and we don't have to do this the hard way!} Bumblebee threatened.

        "Silly Autobots," Starscream teased. Slag, his voice was annoying. "You think you've won already? Hah! Think again!" he shouted as he aimed the missile on his forearm at the cave ceiling. He then transformed into a jet and flew off as the blast crumbled the layers of rock above.

        Before the cave collapsed in on itself, Arcee and Bumblebee transformed to their vehicle modes and drove towards Starscream. As they exited, however, there were no signs of him or any other Decepticons anywhere. They had failed... again.

        With a sigh, Arcee signaled the base. "Arcee to base, the artifact's gone, along with Starscream," she said as she tried to hold back her anger. Why could they never get their hands on any of the Predacon remains? They were quickly losing ground.

        "Alright, sending a ground bridge," Ratchet said as a green portal opened up before them and swallowed the yellow muscle car and blue two-wheeler. Arcee pondered whether to tell Optimus about the bug that led her and Bee to the artifact, but dismissed the thought. They already had enough going on. They did not need another concern to add to their growing list of worries. It was probably nothing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Starscream practically diva-walked to the bridge aboard the Nemesis, ready to show off his new success to his commander, Lord Megatron, like a fashion model ready to strut her clothing around on a catwalk in a fashion show.

        "Master, I come with the newest artifact for the Cyclops to examine," said Starscream, smiling at his own joke.

        "Finally. I have been waiting too long for the cycle you wouldn't fail me, Starscream," Megatron mused.

        Starscream chuckled nervously. "Heh, well I'll have you know that I—Wait. I had it. I had it right here." He checked the last place he had put it. "Scrap! I must have dropped it!"

        "WHAAT?!?" boomed Megatron. "How could you fail at a task so simple?!" he roared. "You can't even keep your grip on a simple bone? What am I going to do with you?!"

        "Uh, but Master—the Autobots—"

        "Enough from you, Starscream. I think it's time I teach you a little lesson," Megatron said menacingly as he took a step towards Starscream.

        Soundwave, working at a control panel nearby, flinched at the raucous screams emitted by Starscream. He nonchalantly turned down the volume of his audio sensors.

        It was just another day for the Decepticons, and another bad day for Starscream.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Wheeljack was happy to see that the old scrap bag Ultra Magnus would not be there to boss him around, but he wished as he crossed the dust-covered, orange terrain that he and Bulkhead did not always need adult supervision. He looked pointedly at the back of Optimus Prime's head while Optimus held point.

        "Something bothering you, Jackie?" Bulkhead elbowed him.

        "Huh? Oh, no I'm fine." Wheeljack wore a smile to hide his chagrin. His last talk with Arcee about not getting angry at Bulk had gotten to him. He did not want to take anything out on the big guy for something that was not his fault, and if he ever lost Bukhead...

        _"...you will never forgive yourself..."_ Arcee's words echoed through his head, finishing his thought. He was getting the feeling that it bothered him more than it should have.

        Suddenly, Optimus Prime stopped. "Hey, what are we stopping fo-" Wheeljack started to say before he was cut off by Optimus's raised hand. The three automatically split up for cover. Of course, Wheeljack went with Bulk.

        They peered behind the rock they were huddled against, thinking they would see a group of Vehicons crowded around the face of a rocky cliff. However, they were surprised to see that no one was in sight.

        "Why are we waiting behind cover? We're not being shot at, yet." the white sports car characteristically rolled out of his cover and ran towards the dig site.

        "No, Jackie, it's a trap!" Bulkhead yelled, but there were no traps, eerily enough.

        "See? Piece of cake," Jackie threw his sword in the air and caught it, mid-spin.

        "Wheeljack, you must learn to wait for my orders before investigating yourself," Optimus nagged.

        "Eh," Wheeljack waved him off. Waiting for commands always took too long.

        "Ugh," Bulkhead groaned to himself as he thought of what Optimus was probably thinking right now as he tugged at the Predacon bone. "Got it." Bulkhead held up a Predacon bone in triumph.

        Optimus nodded. "Ratchet send us a ground bridge." A portal opened up before them, and the three returned to the Autobot base. _That was surprisingly easy,_ Wheeljack thought to himself

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        "Hm?" Jetstream looked curiously at the object which his Buggers had plopped down on his work bench. He took out his portable scanner and analyzed the curved bone-like structure which contained a tracking chip. He was glad that the Spirit cloaked any outgoing signals, but he crushed the chip anyways for good measure.

        A Bugger flew up to him and played him a recording. _"We have to hurry, or they'll be out with the Predacon parts before we can get there,"_ played a female bot's voice.

        "Predacon parts? What would the Autobots need for those?" He asked the bug. The Bugger then projected a hologram, showing the Decepticons that were excavating. He also saw the Buggers devour the Decepticons. Bit by bit, like Scraplets. He chuckled. "Good work, little one. Pass that on to the others." He patted it rewardingly. Now he knew that the Decepticons were after the bones, which made a lot more sense. The only reason the 'Cons would want them would be to clone them so that the Predacons could roam this planet once more.

        Jetstream stretched his arms and wings. "Well, we're not going to let those mean old 'Cons have 'em, am I right?" he cooed his little partner. It responded by squeaking and making excited jumping movements. Jetstream smiled.

        This was actually going to be fun for a change.


End file.
